…And from that moment on, I was no longer the same.
The night grew heavier, and the mountains were no longer silent. They began to whisper—whispers only understood by those who had touched the ink of darkness.
In the nights that followed, I would awaken to the sound of pages turning on their own, and symbols reshaping themselves before my eyes, as if trying to whisper secrets I was never meant to know.
I began hearing footsteps behind me… even though I was completely alone.
With every line I read from the book, I felt a part of me being stripped away and replaced by something else… something not of this world.
And one dawn, I saw a shadow standing at the edge of the mountain—the same shadow drawn on the first page of the book.
But this time… it was real.
It didn't move. It didn't speak. It just watched… and its eyes—or what looked like eyes—burned with a pale blue flame devoid of life.
I had reached the forbidden chapter, one with no title—only a strange symbol resembling a broken star floating above a shut eye.
And as I read it, I heard a voice whispering inside me, in a tongue I had never heard. I didn't understand the words, but my heart did—and it knew fear.
It was then I realized...
This book did not choose me by accident.
And this mountain… was never a refuge. It was a gate.